Rain of a Thousand Flames
by Nick the Raccoon
Summary: Chapter 8: Things get harder for Nack the Weasel as everything goes downhill.


Nack's Legendary Tale Chapter 8 Rain of a Thousand Flames by Nick "frwl Byrd ( frwlnothingbutnack.com )  
  
Welcome aboard the latest and greatest of chapters for NLT. Agnst and violence await in this one; you've been warned. But, ha... if you've made it this far in the fic through reading, you can stomach this one... I think. Copyrights... same as always. Oh, an addition... Samantha the Hedgehog (see chapter 7) is copyright to Sonic Rose ( sonictheroseaol.com ). Dart is copyright to Tim Woods ( rhapsodygoodhuejuno.com ) Without further ado, I give you the tragic Rain of a Thousand Flames.  
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Twas a cold night in a small kingdom on the land known today as Central Europe. A storm had brewed in the sky, and upon the entire land an even darker omen had taken over. A battle of epic importance was taking place, and evil was winning. It is a lost page of history, circa 900 AD.  
Rain was beating down hard and steadily upon the cold stone road. Large puddles were forming in places where the ground was uneven, mud seeping up through the cracks and spaces between the stone blocks. Everything was wet; the rain didn't miss a spot. Every pillar broken by the fighting of those mighty warriors, every charred tree that managed to stand after the destruction begun, every corpse... Yes, corpses. The corpses of thousands of Mobians rested wherever an eye would look in that place. No, they were not women, children, or merchants who had died in this place; all of those folk had wisely fled the area. These corpses were the kingdom's army; it's trained fighters who had all been sent out to fight against a suddenly powerful evil. There were the foot soldiers who slept where they died, dressed in light armor and metal protective hats which did them little good at all. There were the knights who had much more armor and weapons; none of which gained them any protection or ground in the battle. Each one seemed so perfect-looking, as if they were just sleeping, but each one bore a single horrible wound somewhere on their body, whether it be a deep gash through flesh and bone, a sword wound which showed that they had been entirely impaled, or the gaping holes from a spiked glove. One thing was certain; they had lost and paid for it.  
The rain did not hit everyone that night. A single cloaked figure with a glowing staff walked down the still, silent road, and a strange wind followed him, coming from apparently nowhere. This wind blew the rain away from his body, keeping all but his humbly sandaled feet dry. The occasional stroke of lightning in the distance would light the streets for his eyes, and every one brought an equally painful image to him. Many of these unidentifiable men were his friends... many he had blessed before they went into battle... The sights were saddening, but not unexpected. He had neither the time or the want to stop and look or mourn over them; he was determined to do his part of the fighting. This part of the land may have been quiet and danger-free, but dead-ahead of him was more fighting... the remaining force of the kingdom's army.  
Kazema the Echidna was this cloaked figure's name. His fur and eyes were as brown as the cloak on his back, but the only part of his face which showed was what was below his nose. It was not like him to let others look him in the eyes; it was hard for him. To an echidna, eyes held much meaning, especially to this one who was wise enough to read a person like a book when he shot so much as a glance at them. His walking was slow but a constant rate. There was no need in his mind for haste; as a matter of fact he was intentionally going slow. After what had happened in the battle up to this point, it was clear that none of the remaining soldiers would live to see another day. Had he hurried to get to the scene of the fighting, his allies may have gotten in his way and posed an even more dangerous situation.  
Kazema's mouth silently moved as he walked. What he was speaking would be either prayer or a spell. He was preparing himself for his battle. 'My powers are strong,' he thought to himself before he set out that night. 'My cause is good. Evil cannot stand.'  
A few hundred yards ahead of Kazema was the battle, or at least what was left of it. Two strong, armored, and armed figures were battling against about a dozen remaining foot soldiers of the king. One of these two mighty warriors wielded a massive battle axe which he swung as if it were a light club. The other was armed with a blade that gave off a light blue aura; it was a mystical blade of the cosmos: the Ice Sword. It's power surpassed that of any blade which the foot soldiers were fighting with. Any warrior stuck by its flawless blade's edge was literally frozen in death instantly thanks to the lethally deep wounds it was able to inflict. These two warriors were the king's enemies and the land's fear.  
One by one the remaining fighters attacked the two barbarians as if they feared them not, and one by one they died horrible deaths. The masked, silent warriors were too much for them to contend with. Whenever a soldier tried a frontal attack, he was cut down by one of the blades. If one tried sneaking up from behind, he found himself with a spiked fist buried deep in his skull a split second later. The sudden deaths that these brave men had gave them no time to make any final words, but the final sound that escaped their lips was the noise of the air escaping their lungs.  
The hooded echidna was very close at this point when the battle between the two dark warriors and the foot soldiers became two-on-two. That number was soon cut down by the warrior with the axe, who sank his blade into the soldier standing before him. The axe went deep, beyond his collarbone, down as far as to cut his heart in half. The unfortunate soul died instantly, going limp but suspended by the blade embedded in his body. The axe-bearer placed his foot on the deceased Mobian's body and gave two or three pushes before the weapon was freed from its horrible resting place.  
For a few moments, the warrior stood staring out over the battleground, expecting the battle to be over. This moment of rest was short-lived, and as soon as the noise of footsteps in the puddles came to his ears, he turned to their source. Kazema stopped in the sights of the vanquisher and looked at him from under his hood. He could sense that the combatant wanted to lower him as he had to the soldier now dead at his feet, and he was right. The axe-holder raised the bloody weapon and ran forward to cut Kazema down, but the echidna had other plans. Before the fighter could get within attacking range, Kazema extended his staff towards the adversary and silently completed his spell. With a bright flash of light and a strong wind, a ball of white energy shot forth from the staff's end and passed through the warrior's armor. The power of it was great enough to send the gladiator's body flying backwards several feet. When his body hit the ground, his helmet flew off and rolled with a clangor across the ground. Lighting from the distance lit the gruesome face of the unmasked mobian, a yellow wolf. Kazema got only a glance at his face, but it was enough to see what was written all over it. Hatred, anger, greed, but now and most importantly death. One shot from his magical scepter was enough to do more than the entire army could do.  
The helmet rolled past the second combatant, and as it did so, he raised his now unmasked face towards Kazema, but did not rush forward as his partner had done. He quickly finished the soldier who he was holding with his left hand and in a most horrible way. He gripped the still living soldier's head with his left hand, bent him down, and with a few hard strokes of his magical Ice Blade severed his head from his body. The evil- doer's eyes glowed bright red in the darkness as he tossed the still- armored head towards Kazema. Kazema simply sidestepped it and watched it harmlessly fly past him, dripping a bit of blood on his formerly-clean cloak. But the sorcerer was not one to be frightened by that; to do so would be death.  
"Akron!" Kazema yelled out in a voice which was amplified by his magic. "Kron's empire of darkness must end here! You must stop this madness now!"  
"Why should I?" Akron, the black echidna replied.  
"Because it will be your own destruction as well as the destruction of the rest of the world! Kron cares nothing for you, and as soon as you finish doing his dirty work, he'll get rid of you and reign all by himself."  
"Fool!" Akron shot back. "You of all people should know that I cannot be destroyed!" With this, the dark warrior marched forward, sword ready to cut Kazema with a freezing blow. Again the cloaked one concocted a spell that would defeat Akron as it had the other one, and again the staff shot forth a ball of light. But this time, it did not find it's mark on Akron's body, but rather on the Ice Sword. The two magical forces created a powerful blast that knocked both Akron and Kazema off their feet and onto the cold, wet, and bloody ground.  
Kazema quickly looked up and saw Akron's motionless body but knew he was not defeated. The wizard staggered to his feet with a grim look upon his face, and Akron regripped his sword and got back to his own feet. This time they ran at each other and the Ice Sword's blade met Kazema's staff with great force. Light lit the entire area as power fought against power, until the force became too much for either one to handle, and again they were sent flying to the ground, several yards farther apart than before.  
Kazema's body was flooded with pain because of the power which had been exerted now. Both times his power had flowed back into him in a very ungraceful way, and he feared that he would be unable to walk if it happened a third time. He was quick to get to his knees, but turned his body from Akron and began chanting a new spell, one that he had never tried before. In fact, the spell he was concocting was coming straight from his mind; he was making it up right then.  
"I will never be destroyed!" Akron laughed again, his footsteps coming closer to Kazema's ears. Again the Ice Sword was raised to kill, this time to impale Kazema and pin him to the ground.  
"Fine then!" Kazema laughed and turned to Akron. "A prison." With this, he extended his staff towards the skies, and a powerful wind swept Akron off his feet. The very rocks that they had been fighting on seconds earlier came lose and floated up with Akron. But Akron's flight was short lived, and he, being bound by the power of the wind, was sucked underground with an earth-shaking cry of surprise, anger, and pain. And as soon as the spell had started, it was over. The stones returned to their original places, burring Akron deep in the earth.  
The remaining echidna stood and looked on his work without expression or emotion. One thing got his attention, and that was what Akron left behind, the Ice Sword. Kazema picked it up, but it quickly melted in his hands and joined the rainwater at his feet, as if it never existed. He had failed to prepare his hands for handling the magical blade, and now it was gone. But he did not care; he still had his own weapon.  
"High One, hold off the storm as long as your plan allows for," he prayed out loud as he looked on Akron's grave. As soon as these words finished echoing over the ruins of the town, he turned from the scene and walked away in the same manner as he had approached, just before lightning struck the ground where Akron lay.  
But that was over 1100 years ago...  
#####  
I stood there with my deadly shotgun pointed at the group who had followed me outside that night to the cold, dark trainyard. Behind me lay the unfortunate victim of Nack's last shot. "Medic!" I cried out as I pointed my shotgun at the female weasel in the Stetson who stood next to Nack.  
"What do you think you're doing?" Nack exclaimed at my sudden change of aim. "Are you trying to kill us?"  
"Move!" I yelled back. "I don't want to hit you!"  
"What?" Nack asked. "What are you aiming at?"  
"Shoot Lucretia!" Crystal pleaded.  
"Yes!" This time, the one posing as Nicolette spoke. Indeed, the one next to Nack who everyone thought was Nic the Weasel really was Lucretia. She had been wearing one of her shapeshifts for the entire time since we lost Shadow to her and Akron, and we didn't have any clue about it. She, one of our arch-enemies in this war, had been walking around and mingling with us right under our noses, and we had accepted her. But now I knew the truth, the one who Nack had just shot through with a high-powered sniper bullet was none other than Nic the Weasel. "Shoot her!" Lucretia exclaimed, doing a wonderful job at her masquerade.  
"I would love to," I hissed, "but my friends are in the way!"  
"What are you talking about, you idiot?" Rocky yelled at me. "She's laying right there on the ground behind you! Any fool can see that..."  
"You're blind!" I returned. "The one behind me, who Nack just fresh shot, is Nic!"  
Everyone jumped at that statement. "What are you talking about?" Lucretia spat out innocently. "I'm right here, can't you see that?" She turned to look at Nack, then at Rocky. "See? Am I not who I am?"  
Nic slowly raised her head. "You bitch," she groaned out, letting a bit more light shine on her pain-twisted face. "You may be able to run around lookin' like me, but y' don't even know the names of my two children!"  
  
"Of course I do!" Lucretia replied. "You think that I would give birth to them, raise them, and not remember? You are quite a trickster, changing, trying to look like me after you got caught!"  
"Tell me their names," Nic shot back through her agony.  
"No, you tell them to me! I don't see why I should divulge any information to you!"  
"No." A new voice broke into the conversation from the shadows. It was Kit, the mysterious one who hadn't shown any detail about himself to any of us. He was addressing Lucretia. "You tell us. Tell me right now whether you are truly my daughter... or if you are my sister."  
"You..." Lucretia seethed with rage at the sudden interrogation. "You idiot! How dare you show up like this!"  
"Your answer, lil' Sis...?" Kit's smile became visible in what little light there was. Lucretia remained stock still for a moment, and then took flight towards one of the buildings. I opened fire with one shell, and with supernatural athletic abilities she jumped into the air and twisted her body in a strange convolution. To my amazement, that action kept her from taking a hit, but at the same time it made her lose her guise. She was now manifest as her evil self, the witch for all to see. I fired a second shot, but she quickly ducked around the corner. Nack, who was in total shock of the sudden changes of events, ran to intercept her, but when he looked around the corner, she was gone.  
"Help me," Nic moaned. Crystal was quick to get by her side and started looking at the wound. The bullet had entered the left side of her back and exited her shoulder, leaving a bullet wound but surprisingly no blood.  
"You are filthy," Crystal said at first, at a loss for other words. "What is this?" A shiver ran down her spine as she finished asking that question, for at that moment she noticed that it was dried, black blood which was encrusted much of Nic's visible fur.  
"I need help," Nic continued to moan. "It hurts... I need blood."  
Crystal, with her lips trembling at the situation, turned to us. "Someone run ahead and tell the medical ward to get ready for this." She turned back to Nic and was about to pick her up. This time she recoiled from Nic and fell back to her husbands side. Her terrified finger shot forward, pointing straight at the injured weasel. "Look! Look at them!"  
Nack squinted to see through the darkness. "What? what is it?" He couldn't see until he took a few steps forward what the problem was. Her features seemed all normal, besides the fact that she was in such pain and covered with that filth and blood. But the he too saw it, and when he did he cursed quietly in his shock.  
Everyone could see them. Where there once was one, there now were two. What was once known as her family's birthmark, was now doubled. She had two fangs. Two sharp fangs. "What happened to you?" Nack asked.  
"Please get me inside," Nic whimpered again. She wouldn't answer any of our questions in her current state. Misery and half-confusion was written all over her altered features; she was truly a pathetic sight.  
"Fine," I said. "Get her to the medical center and find Andre."  
Rocky was quick to pick Nic up in his strong arms, and all of us followed him as he lead the way to the medical center. Her injured body went frightfully limp in his arms and he commented on how cold she was, but she kept breathing. There were a good many awkward glances shot at us as we did so. Such a thing didn't happen every night.  
"What happened to her?" Calia asked me quietly as she walked quickly at my side.  
"She's felt the kiss of death."  
When we reached the medical center, Crystal went right to work inspecting the wound. "Get the bullet out," I suggested, throwing my two useless cents in.  
"She can't," Nack replied.  
"Why not?"  
"It went all the way through." There wasn't much that Crystal could do in that situation. All it was in that case was a deep wound, starting in her upper back and exiting her right shoulder.  
As the white echidna began wrapping it in bandages, Nic began to wince and whimper in pain again. "Can't you give her a painkiller?" Rocky asked out of concern for his cousin.  
"That wouldn't work," Crystal said softly.  
"Why not?" he asked back. "She must be in a ton of pain."  
As Rocky said that, Andre entered, wondering what was so important as to separate him from his "art" of building the Railgun. When he saw Nic lying there, however, all other things he was worrying about went out the window and he rushed to her side. "What happened?" he asked franticly. "What happened to my wife?"  
Crystal took a deep breath before answering him. "It's hard to say what happened... before she got shot, that is."  
"Shot?" Andre said in a shocked tone. "Who shot her?"  
Nack raised his hand and gave a depressed little smile as he hid the upper portion of his face behind the brim of his hat. "I did and it was an accident."  
Andre could only stare at Nack with tears of disbelief and sorrow in his eyes. "Why not?" Rocky asked again. "Why wouldn't anything work?"  
Crystal laughed before she gave her answer; not a laugh of comedicness or jokingly, but one that came of her disbelief and belief besetting on her all at once. "I wouldn't say this if I didn't have proof because I didn't believe in it. I didn't believe that this could be true... but here it is in front of me. She has no pulse, two fangs, isn't bleeding, was drinking the blood of those she attacked around this base, and has two fang marks in the back of her neck." She pointed the two marks out to everyone as she mentioned them. They were there, alright; two nice holes deep into her purple neck. "She is a vampire."  
"A vampire?!" Andre half asked, half screamed. The poor coward. He loved his wife and hated vampires, and he knew every detail about both subjects. Now he was making a bridge between the two, and. Oh!, what a painful task for him that was. He pulled her head into his shoulder in an embrace. His own head rested with it's chin on top of her head, his tears dropping down onto her long, dirty hair. "This can't be!" he sobbed. "It's not fair!"  
"You're durn right that it's not fair," Kit concurred. "I can't believe that she would stoop as low as this, that Lucretia. I swear, I won't let m' self die before she and her friends are dead too!"  
There was an awkward moment of silence after his words, and this was broken by Nack. "What's with you?" he asked. "Why are you so interested in my sister's welfare?"  
"Don't you talk like that to me, boy," Kit growled back. "I have every right as much as y' have to worry about her!"  
"Who do you think you are?"  
"Who do YOU think I am?"  
  
Nack thought up as many insults as he could to answer Kit's question, but didn't say a word. Something kept him from being able to, but he didn't know what. Truth was that he didn't know who Kit was, and he wanted to know.  
"Who am I?" Kit asked again. "Don't you know? Don't you know who's been watching y'all from behind the brim of this hat all this time?" As he said that, he removed his hat and coat and let them both fall into a pile on the ground. There was not a mouth in that room, save for Nic's, that didn't gape and give out a gasp of surprise. There, standing before Nack, was a near-mirror-image of himself. He stood a bit taller than Nack, but had all the same coloration patterns that Nack had. He looked older and rougher too. Everything, from tail-tip to head-hair, told us who this mysterious weasel was. "My name's Tecumseh! I am your father!"  
Nack couldn't help but stare, dumbfounded, at Tecumseh for a long minute, speechless. He didn't know whether or not to believe that this was really his father, or if he did believe he didn't know how to react. But he did believe and quickly picked the most rational of reactions.  
Nack's gloved fist connected heavily with Tecumseh's chin, knocking him on his tail. He had every intention of flying right on the grounded weasel and beating him to a pulp... had Rocky not grabbed him by the nape and flung him high and far across the room. Nack hit a wall with a loud thud, then slumped to the ground. "I hate you," Nack growled lowly at first, then shouted the rest of what he had to say. "I hate you! I hate you! You abused Mama, tried to kill me when I was just a kit, and didn't give a durn about any part of our family... except t' make sure it brought in enough money for your booze! And the night Mama died? You didn't even come back to watch over Nic and I! Who do you think you are? Who do you think you are?! Tryin' to- to come back tonight and actin' all like- like you want any part of our family? Like you wanna play the part of 'Daddy' now? W- who do you think you are?!" Nack's voice wavered as he struggled to fight back the tears of anger and frustration that he had pent up all the years from his childhood till now.  
Tecumseh slowly got to his feet. "I have to agree with you, Nack," he answered quietly but at the same time loud enough to be heard clearly by all. "I was wrong. I hated my family. I hated everything 'bout life except the booze! I used your mama as nothing but a tool... used her for her beauty, her brains, her ability to bring in money. I was unfaithful! I was a failure! But tell me, how much better of a man would I be if I hadn't repented of all that and didn't try to come back and do something right for my family, like being there for my daughter and telling' you both that I love you?!"  
Nack's sobs were the only sounds that emanated from that room for a good long time after Tecumseh picked up his stuff and walked out into the night and back to his bunk. It was going to be a long night in Texas.  
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Two days passed. Nic had scared Andre half out of his wits when she, in a sudden vampiric bloodlust, tried to take a bite out of his neck when he bent down to kiss her. I had been there to save his life, and everyone was there to witness it, as I struck her as hard as I could across her face with my hard, metallic, left hand. She was quick to tears, and I had to leave when I realized what I had done, calling every curse down upon my head that I could think of.  
But that was a night before this one, and only three people were in the room. Actually, it was only two before Crys came in. A pretty, female hedgehog with relatively soft quills on her head stood by Nic's bedside, holding her hand and stoking the weasel's fur gently. The hedgehog's presence was not unwanted by Nic; in fact she enjoyed the company. This hedgehog somehow knew how to comfort Nic.  
"Who are you?" Crystal asked with curiosity as she came back into the room.  
The hedgehog turned to give Crys a quick glance, then turned back to Nic. "I'm just a friend."  
"Who?" the white echidna asked again.  
She turned to face Crystal full and extended her arm to shake the hand of the healer. "The name's Samantha the Hedgehog, from Engineering."  
Crys shook her hand, but then furrowed her brow. "Why are you here? What do you have to do with Nic?"  
Samantha laughed. "My name doesn't ring a bell?" Crystal shook her head. "I'm one of those who was 'killed' by Andre DuBois' RPG. Remember?"  
"That's right," Crystal replied. "But how can you be Samantha if she was killed?"  
"Promise not to scream or anything if I show you how?" Samantha asked. Crys nodded slowly, and Samantha grinned. Well, Crystal did manage not to scream, though it must have been a bit hard to manage like that. Samantha bore two fangs. "I'm a vampire." Crystal could only back up in fear that Sam would try something dangerous on her, and the hedgehog could only laugh. "Don't be afraid; I'm only half vampire. The process that is used to make one a vampire was interrupted when it was being performed on me. I am sane... most of the time."  
"'Most of the time?'" Crystal repeated in a question.  
"I'm no virgin to blood," Samantha answered with a sigh. "I may have more control over my bloodlust than other vampires, but sometimes I can't help but take a quick bite." Crystal became more frightened at that comment, and Samantha laughed. "Don't worry, I only bite males... maybe your husband." Crystal was silent. "He does look strong... I'm sure that he'd provide a most nutritious drink." Again Crys was silent. "I'm only joking."  
"So you're a real vampire?" Crystal asked, her tone of fright slowly turning into one of curiosity and amusement.  
"Oh yes," The light blue hedgehog answered. "I have a pulse like a dried up river bed, a pair of beautiful fangs, and strength enough to keep any of the men in this army in line. I'll admit that I cannot walk in the day like this... Oh! How sad it makes me... one of my favorite things to do when I was mortal was to watch the sunset... And I was very fond of Italian cooking; I loved garlic." She paused for a few moments to reflect on her former life and how being a vampire had changed her. "But I do have a few advantages over normal, full vampires." As she said this, she turned and posed, letting Crystal get a good look at the weapon holstered at her side: a sword fashioned like a cross, and on itself were many beautiful cross symbols in gold and silver.  
  
"What kind of vampire can wield a cross?"  
  
Samantha laughed. "The last time I was asked that, I had to follow up with a question of my own... 'What kind of Vampire Hunter cannot look upon one?' He turned away from it, trembling."  
"A vampire as a Vampire Hunter?"  
"Another cursed like I... Except he had fallen for one of the vampire's primary lies. You are doomed, there is no escape from this life, therefore you may do as you will, never thinking of the consequences. Although he applied that to destroying vampires, he did not consider his own soul's destiny or the High One, as his ruler, his guide, his armor."  
  
Crystal was greatly bemused by this. "You believe in the High One?"  
"Yes I do," Samantha answered with pride. "I believe that my relationship with Him is the primary reason why I'm not on Akron's side today. A vampire like me doesn't spend 1967 years on her knees for nothing, y'know. After all, Thornebrooke, the vampire who bit me, is fighting right alongside Akron and Lucretia."  
"Thornebrooke? Thornebrooke the Weasel? That's the one who bit Nic!"  
"I know. I guess that's why you could consider Nic and I sisters now. That's why it would be great if someone would go out and kill him."  
"Why?"  
"Don't you know? Once you kill a vampire, all the vampires under that one are freed from the curse. If you killed Thornebrooke, we'd both be freed from this."  
Crystal pondered upon this point for several seconds. It sounded easy enough... but how old did Samantha say she was? Almost 2000 years old? Thornebrooke must have been even older and more experienced. "Thank you for the information," Crystal replied, "But I'm going to ask you to leave now..."  
"No," Nic whispered. It was a peaceful whisper, but one that held much tiredness in it and a much fainter tone of pain- almost undetectable now. "Please, let Samantha stay here. She's been a lot more comfort than anything else."  
Crystal simply shrugged and watched as Samantha continued to stroke Nic's soft arm. Of course she had been fully cleaned up by this time, and it was easy to see what her body was like. She had several wounds: some on her head, some on her arms and legs, some on her torso. She simply claimed that she was beaten several times, nothing more. Also, her fur was turning paler and paler... it seemed to be as if it were turning gray or white, but never quite fully lost its purple hue. "I don't know what they did to her," Samantha said. "She's in so much pain and suffering. That's not normal for vampires. It's like someone invisible is torturing her."  
"Do you know of how they would do such a thing?" Crystal asked with curiosity.  
  
Samantha shook her head: no. "I don't know what they can do... or what they did to her already."  
"They beat me every time I had enough strength to stand," Nic said quietly, devoid of emotion. "They'd hit me and curse at me... sometimes I tried to fight back, but it was just a game to them. And he..." At this point she couldn't go on. With tears in her eyes, she turned away from us and simply lay there silently.  
"Shh..." Samantha began running her hand through Nic's hair, trying to soothe her. "It's ok, you're safe now..."  
#####  
The weeks passed, and Nic showed no signs of improving. Neither was she declining, physically at least. Her emotional being, however, got worse and worse as time went on. She was always so sad... so depressed, and so depressing a sight to look upon. He smile became a thing of the past, and no laughter blessed her lips. She seemed to only be a shell of what she once was.  
Certain patterns began taking place. Andre and his children would visit her, talk with her for a while on how the war was going (which, let me say, seemed to be at a standstill at that point) or whatever things came up, and before they left, she'd take a lunge at Andre or Malik, whoever was closest. She never got them, but she longed to drink blood. It wasn't that she wished to every single second. There were times when she'd want it more than anything in the world, and times when she didn't.  
"Don't worry, Nicolette," Andre would say to her with a smile on his face and tears in his eyes, "It'll be ok. The war will end soon, and you'll be back to normal... and we'll be able to spend nights in each other's arms again." It seemed like such a beautiful promise... one that was so far away that it was almost unbelievable. After all, Andre was standing all the way across the room from her when he said that. "I love you."  
  
"I love you too, all of you," Nic replied. "I love you too."  
And Samantha would come around every other night or so and help comfort Nic's pain. She became like Nic's best friend, one who shared a portion of her pain and knew what it was like to be a vampire. Few words were exchanged between them, but they still shared so much. I doubt Nic would have lasted as long as she did without Sam.  
#####  
Nack and Crystal were spending a few minutes alone in their room that night, thankful from the bottoms of their hearts to the heights of their beings that they had each other. They had decided long ago that their relationship was no accident. Something as sweet as that relationship could only exist under Someone's wonderful plan.  
But their embrace was interrupted by a series of knocks on their door. "Someone sure does have crappy timing," Nack mumbled to Crystal as he got up to answer the door. When he opened it, he saw me on the other side.  
"Good evening, Nack," I greeted. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"  
After a few seconds of silence, he gave his reply: "Nothing I don't plan on returning to soon... now, why are you here?"  
"Could you come with me?" My tone had dropped a bit, quieter so that only he could hear me clearly. "We need to discus things."  
He looked at me with a questioning gaze for a few moments. "Things that are too secret for my wife's ears?"  
I shook my head slowly. "It doesn't concern her, and this will only take a little while."  
After a moment of thinking, he nodded to me, told his wife that he would be back soon, and stepped out into the warm, summer night. Thus began a slow and utterly uneventful walk across camp to where my quarters were. We chatted about a few things, wondering what our next course of action in the war would be. As soon as Andre finished that rail gun, we were going to have to put up the big push across the rest of the country with it. That didn't seem so long away; Andre reported that his job would be done very soon.  
And then we reached my side of the camp. As my room came into view, we noticed four weasels standing before my door, looking in with expressions of disbelief on their faces. Tecumseh, Andre, Malik, and Gracie were the four, and I could not help but vocalize my curiosity about the scene. "Why on Mobius is my door open like this?"  
Tecumseh turned to us and pointed into the room. "Nack, tell her to stop!" he said.  
Nack and I looked at each other for a quick moment before rushing to the door. "What's going on here?" Nack asked before he got a look inside, and when he did, utter bewilderment struck him.  
Of course, I understood the situation completely. Nic had broken into my room, dug through my stuff, and was standing there with her back to the wall and a revolver in her hand. So what's the connection between her and the revolver, you ask? Remember when Nack, Rocky, and I went to that abandoned jewelry shop back in Georgia, why I picked out all that silver? Yes, that gun was holding in its six chambers six beautiful silver bullets. It held the power to kill six vampires. Put two-and-two together, my friends.  
"Are you insane?" I cried out to her. "Put my gun down!"  
"Yeah, listen Sis!" Nack followed up.  
She stood there with the classic deer-caught-in-the-headlights expression at first, tears welling up in her eyes. She held the gun at her side loosely, a tool of death at ease. She was planning to use its silvery advantage over other weapons to end her life, I knew that much.  
"Listen to me as your father for once, Nicolette! Don't do it." Tecumseh spoke with a firm, caring tone that Nack had never heard from him before. Maybe he did care.  
"Please, Nicolette! Don't! I'm sure that there's some way we can help..." Andre spoke this time, begging his wife to change her mind.  
But he was interrupted as her stance became stronger, more determined and stubborn. "No! Don't you know that there is no other cure for my condition? Do you think that you'll be able to chase down the vampire who did this to me? You don't know what it's like to be one minute sane and the next driven insane by those evil forces!"  
There was a long pause of silence. None of us knew, but we could see the suffering in her. It was horrible just to watch as she couldn't even come near her husband or son without wanting to kill them too. "Is it worth suicide?" Those were my words. Slowly I put one foot in front of the other, walking towards her with every intention of ripping the gun from her hands. But that never happened, and she raised the gun. It felt like I was looking right down its barrel, and I knew right then that I was dead. The sound of it firing didn't help either, but I stumbled back and found myself unharmed. She had either missed or fired that shot as a warning... I don't care either way, I was glad to be alive.  
"Mama, please!" Malik, her son and the older of the two twins, began pleading with Nic too. "I don't want you to die this way!"  
"I know how you feel, dear, and I'm sorry," Nic said softly. "I lost your grandma when I was even younger than you."  
"But Mama didn't commit suicide!" Nack's words hit her like a ton of bricks, but she did not put the gun down.  
Gracie didn't give her time to formulate a response that would justify what she was doing. "But what if the curse was uplifted when the war is over? Wouldn't it be worth living then?"  
"The war won't be over until I'm dead," She said. "This is the only way to end this curse."  
"Nicolette," Andre began again, "This- killing yourself- it isn't right!"  
"Then to live is the right thing to do?" She cried back with a tone of anger in her voice. "To do the 'right' thing when you know that it will only work out more trouble and evil is the worst of wrongs... And I don't want to kill myself; I am doing this to destroy the evil that has been planted in me before it corrupts others..."  
"My Nicolette," Tecumseh started again, but stopped with a sigh. It was as if he gave up trying to save her right then. After all, she still seemed so determined to put that bullet through her heart. He turned slowly, keeping his eyes locked with his daughter as long as his flexibility would permit him, and walked away from the scene after saying the following words: "I pray that we will meet again someday, under better circumstances... in a better world."  
Nack fell to the ground and slammed his fist onto the cold, hard concrete. "Why, Nic?" He cried out. "Why does it have to come to this? All these years of fighting you, fighting along side you and protecting you... after I saved your life so many times, you decide to end it this way? Why?"  
"I'm not invincible, Nack. I didn't notice that until that night when they captured me in battle... I didn't notice until they tortured me. Akron..." She finished that sentence, but I will not; it is none of my business to say what she said then. Her eyes met Andre's again. "I'm sorry."  
"Nic," Andre moaned with the tears flowing down his face, "I swear that I will avenge you or die trying." I couldn't believe my ears at first. It was so unlike Andre to say something like that, but I could hear it in his voice. We all could. He meant it.  
"Thank you," Nic said as her tears flowed, and for once she smiled. It was a queer little smile, one that reflected the sadness in her heart but also the joy that she was still loved. "Thank you all for being my friends and family... but now it is time to end the spread of this curse before it starts, and once I am free of it... I will always be with you."  
Her eyes locked with each of us there, one by one. From Malik to Gracie to Nack to Andre to me... and then to Andre again... and she did this all while holding the gun to her chest. Her eyes closed then and silence lay unbroken across the entire world it seemed. It made us want to die. It was the sound of impending death. Nothing was worse, no not a thing. It only made the moment longer and more unbearable.  
And the silence broke as the sound of gunpowder exploding filled the night. It rang in our ears like no other sound could, and when it faded, Nic was still standing there on her feet, eyes closed. But despite that, there was a gunshot wound on her chest. Her smile seemed to lose its sadness for a few seconds before it faded from her face completely. Her hand lost its grip on the revolver, which clacked as it hit the ground. Nic dropped to her knees, then fell over to the side. The bullet had done it's job and was now embedded in the wall behind where Nic stood.  
Her family rushed to her side and raised their mournful cries to the air, and I could only stand there and look upon the tragic sight. I felt sick and couldn't decide what to do. I couldn't leave, that wouldn't be right, but I couldn't join them either. So I stood there for what felt like the longest time; how long exactly I do not know. There came the point where I could not stand to just stand there anymore, and at what felt like a snail's pace I walked towards them, stooped down, and picked the revolver up. I removed the revolving chamber from the gun to unload it and found that Nic had fired two shots, leaving four bullets left. After a few moments of staring at them, I gave one to each of the weasels there. Silently I put one of the bullets into each of their hands, why I do not know.  
I do not know how much more time passed before I piped up. "Nack, I know that this isn't the best of times," I started quietly, "But there's something important that we need to discuss."  
"What?" His tone was quiet but so dead-cold that it sent shivers down my spine.  
"It's been twenty years." He didn't respond. "Your time of immortality has come to an end, Nack. Time to chose the next Master."  
He turned to look at me over his shoulder. "How much longer can I hold onto it for?"  
"48 hours," I answered. "I will plan for you to pass it off then. I leave the target up to you." Nack nodded, and I finally left. I decided that I wouldn't sleep in that room again. I can assure you that it was not a fun experience to explain why that was to Calia, who had worked a late shift that night.  
#####  
Nack went to bed eventually that night, or late morning should I say. It was not an easy thing to do. Memories of Nic stayed in his head... all the bounties they had fought over, all the trouble they had gotten into, all the moments they had shared. And now she had chosen to leave him like that. The mixture of thoughts caused him to cry himself to sleep.  
He dreamed. Or... did he? Was it really a dream? He doubted it. Suddenly he shot awake, with a smile on his face as odd as it may seem at the time. He knew who he should pick to be the next Master! It was such a random dream, but the message was clear and he had made up his mind to follow it. His eyes drifted to the clock and he found that he had only slept for about two hours, but he felt totally awake. No point in going back to sleep now, it would only make waking up later harder. He rolled over in bed, smiled at Crystal, lay a kiss on her head, and got up.  
The glow from the sun was very faint on the horizon, but it was there. Nack decided to take a stroll around the depot before it sprang to life again. It started off to be a pretty boring walk, and that's the entire point. The world was to busy, he thought to himself. It needed to slow down like this more often than it did already. Everyone was trying to go a hundred miles per hour in fifty directions at once. True, he kept himself busy, but at least he had a time to enjoy his life. The world, even when sleeping as it was right now, was interesting enough.  
And things did get more interesting. As he passed by the main warehouse, he noticed that it was open and in operation. Curiosity never killed any weasels (often), so he decided to look in. Inside was the rail gun, the thing that Andre had been working on all this time. It stood so tall and was so long... made of metal from its track-bound wheels to the tip of its gaping barrel. It was a weapon but also a work of art. And the artist stood on it, half way up its height, tightening a bolt.  
"It is finished, Nic," Andre said after he finished this. "The rail gun is completed."  
"You finished it?" Nack's voice was quiet, but in the emptiness of the building it was easy for Andre to hear.  
"Yes," He said without looking at Nack. "You're the sharpshooter around here now... use it." With that he hopped off the gun and walked into the dark recesses of the building.  
"Andre?" Nack called out into the shadows. No response. "Andre?"  
"Leave him alone." A third voice was heard somewhere in the room, and it did not take Nack long to find its owner. Tecumseh sat on the railing of the catwalk overlooking the rail gun's firing mechanism. "His wife's dead; how do you think he feels?"  
"Like you would know," Nack shot back, coldly. And then he realized that Tecumseh did know.  
Nack's father only hummed in response first. It was a reply without words, but one that was fully understood by Nack. He did know what it was like. "My daughter is dead. Her children's mother is dead. Your sister is dead. Her cousin's cousin is dead. Your son's aunt is dead. Your wife's sister-in-law is dead. Her men's leader is dead. You think that there's not gonna be a lil' mourning around these parts tonight?"  
What could Nack say? Tecumseh was right. And then he did something that he never dreamed of doing. Slowly Nack walked forward, climbed the rail gun, and stood next to Tecumseh. He didn't say anything though.  
"Did I ever tell you that I'm half wolf?" Tecumseh asked finally. Nack shook his head. "I'm half wolf," Tecumseh stated. "My father was wolf, my mama weasel. Your mama was 100% weasel. I guess that makes you a quart wolf, don't it?"  
Nack nodded in response. He had never known he was a quarter wolf. "Does that make me a weasel-wolf?"  
"I like the sound of wolf-weasel more." Tecumseh laughed lightly at his answer.  
"Why did you hate me?" Nack asked, changing the subject rather abruptly.  
"Cause I thought you were weak and worthless," Tecumseh answered without delay, as if he were asked what two-plus-one was. "I didn't think that you'd be strong enough to carry my blood in you." He paused for a moment to reflect on his memories. "And then... 'Fang the Sniper.' You became one of the most despised and dangerous people on the face of Mobius. Boy, you sure proved me wrong. You know how proud you made me?"  
"Why did you hate Mama?"  
There was a long period of silence after Nack asked this question. Tecumseh eventually raised his head to look out of one of the warehouse' windows. "I don't know," he said softly, as if in a whisper, unable to add any more strength in his answer.  
Nack turned his face away from his father. He didn't know? He didn't know why he hated her? What kind of an answer was that? "I just wish that you were the father that you should have been when I needed one."  
"So do I."  
#####  
The rest of that day did go by with mourning all about the camp. It felt like some stupid sickness had spread through the entire depot. It was as if both the strength and will to do what we were there to do had been sapped from everyone. The rail gun was finished, so why weren't we moving it westward? Because Akron's defenses were in the way. So why weren't we fighting them? Because we didn't feel like it. Yes, it was a pathetic day.  
The next day wasn't much better, but if you will recall my little discussion with Nack back in the room where Nic had died (yes, Calia and I had chosen a different room to sleep in), We had some business to take care of later that night, and we were going to go about it.  
  
Five of us stood alone on the helipad that night. We were Nack, Crystal, Calia, a pilot, and I. We had decided to move east away from the camp so nobody would interfere with us. After all, this wasn't a thing that was simply open to the public.  
"Where are we going, Nack?" Crystal asked.  
"You'll see," he answered and playfully lifted the happy echidna into the transport copter. They disappeared into its passenger compartment, and the pilot climbed into his spot, leaving my wife and me alone on the helipad.  
"Where are you going, Nick?" Calia asked.  
"I'm just acting as a bodyguard for Nack and Crystal for a few moments, that's all," I answered, pulling her close and nuzzling her a bit, playfully. Indeed, I was going to make sure that nobody got in the way, armed with that shotgun Angel had given to me.  
"Is it dangerous?" She asked.  
"I don't think so." I smiled a bit to her and kissed her lovingly. "I kiss you and say 'Farewell, I love you' with all my heart, for it may be my last chance."  
"Come back in one piece," she said, kissing me again.  
"If it is up to me, I will."  
I boarded the copter and we were off into the dark night. I sat on one side of the compartment while Nack and Crystal sat on the other. All I could do was look at them. He loved her and she love him so much. They stared into each other's eyes and it was clear that the love they shared was still burning very strong. I hated the fact that I had chosen to leave Calia behind tonight. I loved her with all my heart and now would have given anything just to be with her right then.  
But it wasn't for me or Calia that we were flying away from the depot, and we eventually landed where we had planned to: one of the enemy's abandoned bunkers that we had destroyed months earlier. Crystal stepped out of the transport with curiosity, followed by Nack and myself. "Why are we here?" She asked as we entered one of the old, dusty buildings.  
"You remember when I told you that I was immortal, Crys?" Nack asked. "Back on that island before we got married?"  
She looked at him with a look of confusion. "Yes," She answered, "But what does that have to do with this place?"  
"I've chosen to pass it on tonight, Crys. I'm going to give it to you."  
"What?" She became more confused. "Why me?"  
"I don't know Crystal," he answered with a laugh. "All I know is that it's what's supposed to happen, and I'm happy with it."  
She had a hard time understanding that, and Nack had a hard time explaining it. "Trust me, Crys," he said eventually, "This is for you."  
"How?" she asked.  
Nack turned to me, and I was leaning up against the doorway, simply watching them. "You think that it's something that I practiced every night?" I said to him. "You know what to do."  
Nack laughed and turned back to his wife. "I do know what to do. May I see your hand?" Slowly she extended it to him, and he took it in his left, gloved hand. "Ready?" Crystal nodded. He brought his right, ungloved hand up and extended his index finger at her hand. As he brought it closer and closer to her hand, she became more and more interested in what was going on, watching closely. To her amazement, a dim wave of light was being transmitted by his finger and was attracted to where he was pointing on her hand. A moment before he touched her, its appearance became like that of golden electricity, and at the same moment she saw it, it was gone. She gasped as she felt the power transferred from Nack to herself, and Nack couldn't help but laugh at what he had given to her.  
"Nack, I love you," she said, throwing her arms around him and hugging him close to her.  
"I love you too, Crystal," he said as he returned the hug.  
Their hug lasted for a few minutes before Crystal asked: "Now what do I do with it?"  
"You'll know if and when the time comes," Nack answered.  
"Exactly," I laughed. "And now, we should get moving back. This isn't the most homely of places."  
"Right," Nack concurred and began leading his wife back to the copter. "Let's go."  
I followed without saying anything, and soon we found ourselves back in the transport waiting to take off. But something was wrong. "I don't feel good," I said.  
"What's wrong?" Nack and Crystal asked at the same time.  
I shook my head. "I don't know. Something's happened. We need to get back to the depot- now." The pilot started the helicopter, and we were out of there without a moment's delay.  
We were about twenty or thirty minutes away from the depot when we took off, and that's if we were flying at normal speeds. The way back was flown at roughly double that speed. It was not an easy trip for me. I didn't know what was wrong, but I could feel that something bad had happened. It was like I was sitting on tacks; I wanted to be back where my wife was right then, every moment of that flight.  
And as we were landing, we could see that something had stirred chaos in the depot. No, there was no battle going on, but there were many who were running around up in arms, looking around as if hunting for someone. On the edge of the helipad stood two from my ranks and my daughter, Christine.  
Christine ran up to me and wrapped her arms around me, crying. "What happened?" I asked, very worried now.  
"Lucretia was here again," she sobbed.  
"What happened?" I asked again, pushing her away from my body lightly and looking at her in her tear-filled eyes... did I read her eyes? I hoped that I didn't. She didn't answer my words, but somehow I saw something in her eyes... and when I did so, I let her go and ran as hard as I could towards my section of the depot.  
As I rounded the corner that would lead me down the corridor to my room, I was interrupted by one of those in my ranks, Lt. Mendoza. "Sir!" he cried out as he stopped me, "Please wait for an explanation!" I shoved him out of my way and kept running till I reached my door. I kicked it open...  
My eyes fell immediately on the bed. There was a feeling that I felt right then from doing so. It was as if my jaw stopped working, a tingling sensation starting from there and working it's way to my ears. My lungs felt like someone had knocked the wind out of me, my legs as if they were wearing cement-block shoes. It felt like some sort of hellish nightmare.  
I felt like someone had ripped my heart out.  
I took one step, then another... slowly approaching the bed. My hand extended itself to what I saw, and it was trembling. Before it reached its target, I felt my foot step on something.  
I looked down to see what it was. A strange, Griffin-style knife was on the floor, blood on its blade. I picked it up and looked at it. Oh how I cursed it in my mind. Why had something like this happened? With an enraged yell, I threw it and it embedded itself in the wall. I didn't care. All that I cared about was what lay on that bed.  
"Calia," I whispered, sitting down on the bed. "I told you that I'd come back in one piece. I'm here, baby." I ran my finger across her face, moving a stray lock of hair from getting in the way of her full beauty. So cold... so still...  
"What happened?" I heard Crystal ask in shock.  
I turned to see her and Nack standing there in the doorway, and I pointed at Nack. "Your damn aunt happened, that's what!" I yelled. My eyes turned back to Calia, just to verify that what I had said was really true... Lucretia had stabbed my Calia in the heart.  
"Oh no," Nack whispered, also in shock.  
"It happened just a few minutes after you left, sir," Lt. Mendoza said. "There was no sign of Lucretia in the base, and then we heard a scream..."  
"She's ok now," I said quietly. "Calia's just resting. Nobody can harm her now." There was a long silence as I continued to run my hand through her hair. She was so beautiful... but so still and cold... and dead. "It's not fair!" I cried out. "Why did she attack someone like this? If she wanted to fight us, then why didn't she do it like a real fighter does?"  
"She's a dirty fighter," Nack said quietly. "This is what she's used to doing."  
I raised my eyes to them. "Is that so? Well... well then, I know what to do." I stood up and walked past them all, but Nack was quick to follow me as I walked down the corridor.  
"What are you gonna do?" he asked.  
"Tell that pilot that I have one more flight for him tonight."  
"What?" Nack gasped. "What do you mean?"  
I didn't reply until I reached the armory. From it I took a weapon that I hadn't planned on using during the war and put in in a shoulder- mountable sheath. It was a 3 foot, 6 inch staff with a pike's tip at one end. The shaft was made of a carbon-based polymer that was virtually unbreakable, and it's tip had the sharpness of a surgical drill bit. "I'm going to teach that witch how to fight clean," I said.  
"How?" Nack asked. "She's in Dallas, how are you gonna fight her?"  
"I'll fly there."  
"You'll get shot down, we haven't reclaimed that city yet."  
"As far as I'm concerned," I began, "This war is over tonight."  
"What do you mean?"  
I turned to leave for the helipad and gave my answer with a snarl. "I mean that tonight either I or Akron and Lucretia will be dead!"  
"Daddy, don't say that!" Christine came from apparently nowhere and yanked on my jacket's sleeve, pulling me to look at her. She was 18 years old now, not a little girl, but I could see that she didn't want her daddy to be in danger. "Don't go! What if you do die? What will happen then? I have no family left!"  
"Your mother was the other half of me," I said. "One half of someone can't live without the other."  
"Then that's it, isn't it? You plan to die there."  
"I plan on ending this war tonight," I replied.  
"But what if you can't?"  
At that I pulled her away from the small crowd that had formed around us, just far enough so that I could whisper to her without being heard by anyone else. I told her what I wanted to say, kissed her on the cheek, and then turned for the helipad. For a few seconds, she just stood there and scanned the crowds... and when she didn't see who she was looking for, she ran into a dark ally to weep.  
"Before we go, sir," the pilot said to me over his shoulder, "I must let you know that I think this flight is suicide."  
"And would you think it suicide if I shot you for not going?" After I said that, he started the copter up and flew off without another word.  
It was only a half hour later that I was walking down the streets of Dallas. The transport copter had flown safely beyond enemy lines without even being fired at once. It was as if they didn't even see us. Dallas was now Akron's capitol in Texas; it was his stronghold. Like New York, he had turned it from a commercial city into an outpost of his army. All of its inhabitants had fled when the initial invasion began, and those foolish enough to stay behind were killed.  
It was obvious where Akron's point of power was in Dallas. It was where he could look out and see as far as he wanted, the former Bank of America building of Dallas. It was the tallest building in the area, and controlling the city from there was no problem for him. So that was my target as I walked down the streets. Nobody got in my way.  
When I did reach the building, I met one of his "zombies." He was a large rat who snarled down at me. "What makes you think you can enter this building?" He asked, mockingly.  
"I do," I answered.  
"I don't think so," he replied.  
I sighed. "You shouldn't have gotten in my way." Before he could respond, I took the shotgun on my back and fired it into his chest. He fell over as soon as the lasers burned him, but I could sense that he was not the only threat. I turned and found two more about to jump me, so I fired a few shots at them too. Peppered by the shots, they backed away in submission, and I entered the building.  
"I can see that you're here," Akron's voice came over the intercom as I walked through the lobby. "Why is that? Why has someone like yourself come to this place?" His tone was cool and arrogant. It seemed that he had no fear in him of my arrival. "What good do you think will come of it? I could have killed you easily while you were on your way here. Is that why you came here, to die?" I entered the elevator without caring about what he said. "What is keeping me from cutting the cable and sending you to your death right now? Don't you see that your lives are always in my hands?"  
"Akron," I said aloud, "Until you are ready to talk to me face to face, hold your silence."  
When no more words of his came, I pressed the button. I was on my way to the top floor. As I stood there in the elevator, heading for the roof, I could only think of one thing: Calia. We had been married for 19 years, and now that was over. It wasn't fair. Someone as beautiful as her shouldn't have had to died in such a way. She wasn't meant to be murdered. There was only one thing that I could do now; I had to avenge her.  
Akron did not cut the cable as he threatened. I reached the top floor, took a flight of stairs up, and found myself opening a hatch to the roof. There was not much to it, and when I stepped through it and shut it behind me, I found myself almost alone up there on the flat roof. The only other person up there was Akron, who stood on the edge of the building with his back to me. "Face me, you evil fool!" I yelled at him as I threw my shotgun off the roof and well out of reach for anyone.  
"It's silly, isn't it?" Akron said without turning to me. "All your fighters wasting their lives out there against my fighters for a cause that is so weak... and you haven't moved an inch from that depot in months. Tell me, what was so great of a thing that you promised them that they'd throw themselves into such a bleak cause?"  
"Freedom from your tyranny," I replied.  
He laughed at first. "Tyranny? You will set them free from our 'tyranny?'" He turned to me. "Do you know how great of a force Kron and Aurora make together?"  
"Aurora?"  
"Why yes, Aurora... that's who Lucretia has helping her... the goddess of the echidnas. Together, Kron and Aurora will pick your world to pieces, and the real rulers of the world will be shown."  
I scoffed. "You aren't even united under one 'god!' What hope do you have? And can you really call it a world if you're trying to kill everyone in it?"  
"What difference does it make? Everyone's gonna die somehow someday, we're just making that process quicker."  
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," I laughed back. "And if it were true, you must have to die someday too."  
"You are the fool. Don't you know that I'm over 1100 years old?"  
  
"And don't you know that I've seen over 2500 years?"  
There was a moment of silence except for the wind. Rain was beginning to fall from clouds overhead; a warm summer's rain. "Why are you here?" Akron asked.  
"I'm here to end this war," I replied. He had no weapon on him, so I set mine down where I stood, as well as my jacket.  
"Oh yes, and fight like a real man, huh? Funny... you hope to end this war and save the world when you couldn't even save your own wife." He grinned evilly at me, one of bad intent, and I had had enough.  
With a growl, I ran forward to fight with him, and he walked. I came forward with the first attack, a punch with my left, metallic arm. It grazed his shoulder and did no damage, and he followed up with an uppercut to my gut. The blow was very solid and caused a nauseating feeling in me, but it failed to knock the wind out of me.  
He punched at my head, which I was quick enough to dodge, and I followed up with a right hook to his head. He also dodged, ducking under it. I didn't let him come up before I kneed him right in the face as hard as I could. He fell flat on his back, stunned by the blow. Out of my anger, I was on top of him before he could recover. I grabbed him by the throat with my left hand and lifted him into the air. "This is for Calia!" I yelled, and punched him in the stomach. He flew out of my grasp and landed back where I found him when I reached the roof. Slowly he got on his side, propping himself up on an elbow and clutching his throat. "Tell me, how do you plan on overcoming the world when you can not beat me?"  
His pain disappeared, and he smiled at me again. "Numbers," was all he said.  
I did not like the look in his eye or the sound of his voice, and it became clear to me what he had just implied. Quickly I turned and ran back to my entry point on the roof and picked my pike up. When I turned around, I saw no less than what I expected. Akron was back on his feet with the Emerald Sword in his hands, Lucretia on his left, and Shadow on his right. Lucretia was armed with a strange staff and Shadow held a sword of his own in his hands. Yes, this was going to be a tough fight.  
I stood back and let them make the first offensive, and the one who I didn't want to attack first did. Shadow rushed at me and took a stab that I quickly deflected with a twirl of the pike. Before he could strike again, I bopped him on the head with the blunt end of the pike and jumped forward at Lucretia. I took a stab at her and she parried the attack away with her staff. I spun my pike in an attempt to hit her in the neck or shoulder, but again she blocked.  
Quickly I turned to block an oncoming slash from Akron's Weapon, and as I did so I kicked back to knock Lucretia from attacking while my back was turned. Before I could go on the counteroffensive against Akron, he attacked with another swift slash and I couldn't help but block it and back up out of his range. I spun my pike as I turned to defend myself against any other attackers and ended up knocking Shadow in the head again. He didn't take it so lightly this time and tried to cut me to pieces. I couldn't believe that the hedgehog had so much speed in his sword attacks and I was barely able to keep up a sufficient defense. It eventually came to the point of me knocking him hard in the hand with my staff to cause him to drop his weapon. He did so with a yelp, and I kicked him off to the side.  
Akron came in with an attack from behind again, but this time he wasn't so lucky. I ducked under his incoming blade and swept his feet out from under him. I wanted to put the pointed end of the pike through his heart right then, but was interrupted by a hard blow on the back by Lucretia. I stumbled forward, having lost the majority of my balance, and turned to face her. All three of my enemies were in view now, so I had nothing to fear. She swung at my head, and I ducked. But her assault didn't end and she brought the staff down with a hard blow to my back. I hit the cold, wet roof and saw Akron coming towards me with that Sword again. I quickly extended the pike forward and embedded it's tip into the sole of his sandal. He grunted with pain before I withdrew it and swept Lucretia's feet out from under her again. While still on my stomach, I thrust the pike's blunt end backwards just in time to catch Shadow in the jaw. I took that opportunity to get up.  
My target was Shadow this time. I blocked three more of his slashes before kicking him in the groin. That shot bent him over, and another knock with the blunt end of my pike sent him and his pretty wings to the floor again.  
Akron charged me. His sword narrowly avoided cutting into my arm, and then my head. He ended his combo with a downward chop which intended in cutting me in two. I dodged just in time to trap his blade to the roof with my pike and punch him hard across the face. He fell, dazzled by the sudden shot.  
Only Lucretia was standing now: the witch who had killed my wife. I smiled at her with anger, and she smiled back. She was happy of what she had done, and it was clear that she would be happy to take it a step further. That was not something that I was about to let her live to do. We approached each other, staffs in hands, ready to battle.  
She took a swing with one end of her staff followed up by another with the other end. Both times I struck the staff away. My next move was to try to bludgeon her over the head with the full length of my pike. She caught my overhead swing with the section of her staff which was between her two paws as she held it. That made it easier for her to reroute the energy of my strike to the roof, which she then followed up by striking me in the face with a swing from her staff. I backed up a bit to ensure that she wouldn't be able to do that again, but she kept coming forward. She was trying to hit my head again by thrusting the end of her staff in my face. I managed to avoid the first three shots, but she connected when she aimed at my chest. Again, the force knocked me back.  
When I saw that going defensive against her wasn't working, I turned to strike her again. She poked at me again with the end of her staff, and I trapped her staff under my left armpit. With her staff partially in my control in my left hand and my pike in my right hand, I began to swing at her defenseless body. She blocked my swings with her free arm, and it was an awkward position for me. I couldn't do any damage. With a great push of my energy, I turned my body left, wrenching the staff from her grip, making her now weaponless.  
With two swift blows, a kick to the stomach and a downward strike with the edge of my pike, I sent Lucretia to the ground. That was my opportunity, that was my time to avenge Calia. Everything seemed to slow down, and everything but the ground, the rain, Lucretia, myself, and the pike in my hand faded away. I lifted the pike above my head, ready to put it through her heart right then. A million thoughts went through my head in that single moment. This would be what Calia wanted; this would be a turning point in the war; this would be our dawn of victory; this would be the end of the witch who had caused the world so much suffering. But most important of the things I thought right then were two separate thoughts: the first being that all of the above were not true and the second being that I had failed.  
I felt like a chess master who had made a mistake that would cost him the game as I held that pike above my head. The mistake is not the end of the game, but the chess master knows that the end and his defeat is coming. There was no escaping it, no counteroffensive or valid defense that could protect me. I had disobeyed the first rule of fighting: "Never take your eyes off your opponents."  
Sure enough, I did not bring my pike down through Lucretia's body. Instead, my grip on it slowly lessened, and it clangored on the roof when it had fully left my hands. My gaze was out over the city, not at Lucretia or the pike or anyone else on the building, but I slowly turned my eyes downwards... to my body. There, obtruding from my chest, was the tip of the Emerald Sword.  
"How does it feel to be beaten this time, Raccoon?" Akron hissed. He was standing behind me with that blade, keeping it in my body after he stabbed me.  
"Calia," I whispered quietly, "I'm sorry I failed you."  
"Yes, you failed!" Akron laughed. "You were bound to fail the whole time! You should have known that, you were the one who said it long ago! How could I kill anyone if I was dead myself?"  
It wasn't fair... The evil forces weren't supposed to win like that! I was the one who fought through numbers greater than myself, I was the one who had played fair. Why was I the looser?  
Lucretia was back on her feet again, looking a bit beat up but not acting like it. "So you follow the High One, don't you?" She asked, taking a step towards me.  
"You said it," I replied.  
"Mmm," she hummed back. "That's a shame. I guess you won't be able to join us then." She ran her finger along the bloodied blade of the Emerald Sword, then up to the tip of my chin and then into her mouth. "Yes, a real shame. Your blood is so sweet, just like your wife's."  
I could feel the tears forming in my eyes. I wanted another chance to beat her to a bloody pulp, and then the echidna standing behind me. "You'll pay for this, both of you!"  
"What about me?" Shadow asked, stepping into my view. "Am I not worthy to be mentioned with my masters?"  
"Shadow," I cried out, "You shouldn't side with them... take a look around! What did they promise you? Do you see it?" Shadow didn't answer. "They're the wrong side, Shadow! They are the evil ones. Just give me the power to show you that I am right..."  
A surging pain shot through my wound as Akron pulsed some strange energy through it. I was powerless to avoid it, naturally. "If you're right," Akron began, "Then why are you the one in this position right now?"  
"Because you are cowardly fighters!" I growled back, angered at how he was playing with me.  
"We're only the best," Akron replied. "You were pretty good too, but not good enough."  
I laughed a small laugh as he said that. "I tried my best."  
"And for that you shall be rewarded." As he said that, he withdrew the sword from my body. It was then that I understood that my strength to stand had come from the Emerald Sword's energy, and now, with that gone, I slumped to the floor. "Let him die with what he fought so hard for... Peace," he said, turning to walk to the hatch that lead back inside. Lucretia followed at his side, but Shadow did not. He simply stood there, looking down at me for a few moments. I could only see his feet from that angle, and I don't know what his expression was as he looked down on me. Maybe he pitied me for what had just happened, or maybe he didn't care much. "Dargor?" Akron called out to him. Without a word, Shadow turned and left. I was finally alone.  
Have you ever listened to the sound of rain hitting the ground? I don't know what it's like, but if it's anything like how it sounded on that building's roof, it is quite peaceful. I looked out across the expanse of the roof in front of me, watching the drops splash on the surface. Each drop that hit exploded into another ten or twenty smaller droplets, which then dropped to the roof and got lost in the water that was already there. I never noticed how pretty it was.  
My back hurt. My front hurt. My insides hurt. Akron did do a good job at putting that Sword through me. I lifted my hand to my face to see that it was covered with my blood, but that was blurry. I must have been losing it already. Blood... my blood. So, that little amount of red liquid inside of me was what was keeping me alive all those years? That didn't make much sense. There had to be something more behind a person than just some red. But if that were true, why was I dying without it? Maybe I really was that pathetically fragile.  
I managed a small smile then as a song from my early years came back to my mind. "Here I am, face to you. Tell me now, whatever could I do? Is now the time to go?" Was it really my time to go? How disappointing. I had seen the world, but it was changing so much that I felt like I had seen so little. Things went by so quickly.  
"Today I wear a face born in the falling rain. All I need is her shape. Where are you now?" Was Calia really dead? No, that could not be. Suddenly I felt that she wasn't dead but very alive. I couldn't understand it. I saw her dead, so why now this feeling? Was she alive?  
"Remember what I said: 'Don't ever lose your faith. Where a love is true there is no end.'" Where a love is true there is no end... not even in death, right? I guess that's included in the "no end" part. So, maybe Calia really was still alive after all...  
"Come to me, now you'll see, there's no end, there's no pain." I heard someone's voice near me, a familiar, female voice. But how could that be? I was sure that I was alone on the rooftop. But an upward glance assured me that I was not alone. A pair of feet and a robe were all I could see from that angle. All of that was so shining white that I could not think of any way to make it whiter. Never had I seen anything so purely white... her fur I did recognize though. It was Calia.  
I bowed my head back to the roof. I felt ashamed in her presence how I was. "I'm sorry that I failed to avenge you, Calia," I said. Or did I say it? I don't know, I couldn't hear it myself. I was either too weak to make myself loud enough or too crushed to put more strength into it.  
She laughed warmly at what I said. Seems that she did hear it even if I couldn't. "Why did you come out here? Why did you feel the need to 'avenge' me? You told me already that you loved me, and I knew you meant it."  
"I thought I could prove it better..."  
She knelt down beside me and lifted my head lightly and looked at me in the eyes. I swear to you that I never saw a more beautiful face. She was so happy and perfect then... "Words are proof enough when said from the heart," she replied.  
Again I managed to smile. My eyes were dark; it was hard to see or breathe. My life was departing, and I could not see Calia anymore. "Far away... she's waiting there for me..."  
"Far away... he's coming here to me," Calia sang back.  
"Far away... we'll start a new life, together... Living on, forever."  
#####  
"What is on your mind, Dargor?" Akron was looking at the black, winged hedgehog who was looking out of one of the many windows of the building. "What is on your heart?"  
"That Raccoon's words..." Shadow turned to look over his shoulder at Akron. "Where is what you promised me?"  
"Oh Dargor," Akron said softly, taking a few steps towards Shadow. "Don't pay heed to that dead fool."  
"No," Shadow replied sharply. "I don't know. You promised me all that...all those things, and I haven't seen any of it. Where is the power that you promised me?"  
"I can show you the power." As he said this, Akron grabbed Shadow's neck and let some of his power flow. Shadow faltered under the sudden paralyzing pain that Akron was inflicting on him, and it did not stop until Shadow fell to his knees. Akron kept his grip on the hedgehog, however. "I have the power," he said with a wry grin, "And you can either choose to follow it or go against it and die."  
"I'll follow you!" Shadow replied, almost too quickly. "I'll follow you!"  
"Good," Akron smirked as he turned and left the gasping hedgehog to himself.  
#####  
Nack the Weasel's point of view  
#####  
Argh... how sickening things got around the depot after that night. Everyone hated it there. First Nic died, then Calia, and then Nick was gone off on some suicidal mission to Dallas. Christine kept running from everyone, and that meant that my son was gonna follow her and not listen much to what I said. Andre was a blubbering fool, telling me yet again to roll that rail gun out of the depot to give Akron the hell he deserved, at least twice; Nic's forces, who were now under me, didn't understand me very well; and Crystal was too stressed out for me to be happy. In a word, again: argh.  
Morning came, and I was awakened by one of those durn messengers. I wanted to sleep, but matters concerning this war wouldn't let me. Well, it turned out that Nick's transport copter had just been seen on the horizon heading our way. 'Ha!' I thought to my self. 'So the dirty ol' coon survived! That's a miracle.' I decided to greet him.  
I grinned as the copter touched down on the helipad while I stood on its edge. I waited for the blades to stop spinning before I went up to the door and opened it with a laugh. "So, you ended the war already, did you?"  
I wasn't to happy when I was greeted by Shadow, or Dargor or whatever he was calling himself those days. "It's over for you, Weasel," He said with a smile. What a cocky little punk! He stepped out of the transport, followed by two of his underlings. They were carrying a coffin-like box.  
"You're joking," I groaned when I saw it.  
That hedgehog put his dirty little finger on my white chest fur and looked at me with a stern glance. "You have two days more in this depot. After that, I'm going to destroy it. I suggest that you run before then." I wanted to wring his scrawny little neck right then and show him who he was talking like that too. I was Fang the Sniper, not just some kid to be pushed around. But before I could give him a piece of my mind, he reentered the chopper and flew away. I feel sorry for the pilot.  
We decided that day that Nick's troops would be placed under Rocky. Funny thing was that there was a lot of tensions between the two parties, both thinking that they were better than the other. Can you imagine how hard it was to get Nick's fellows to go into Rocky's ranks? It was like trying to fire a rifle bullet out of a pistol at first, it just wasn't working. Later that day, however, they eventually "complied and joined Rocky's ranks." That's pretty much a fancy way of saying that they threw a little pity-party and decided to do whatever Rocky said while at it and no more than what he asked.  
And then there was Christine. Poor, poor Christine. At first I lost track of her after she caught wind that her father was dead, but I did learn what happened to her.  
#####  
Evening came, and Christine was sitting where she had been all day: under a tree just outside of the depot. She had spent it alone, mourning the loss of her family. She was the only one left now. I know it was lonely; I didn't like it when Mama died and Dad left me and Nic alone. I had someone, but Christine did not.  
She sat alone there until the sun was gone. A boy eventually came along and sat down beside her. This boy was not Mobian; he was human. He was about eight years old, but seeing how Mobians are naturally much shorter than humans, he stood as tall as her. His name was Dart and he was an interesting child. Not only did he have green hair, surprisingly good manners, and a head sharper than most people double his age had on their shoulders, but he was also psychic! He was mute and couldn't talk, but he could send his words to people he wanted to communicate with by telepathy. I would be wrong to say that everyone who were in the places that Akron took over died. In fact, a large majority of them escaped their homes alive, shaken up and homeless, but alive. Dart's parents had escaped, but were dead now. We had taken Dart under our protection when we found him, and now he was almost like a brother to Christine.  
"What's wrong, Christine?" he asked with his mental powers  
"My parents are dead," She replied quietly.  
Dart did the only thing he could think of then and wrapped his arms around Christine. "I'm sorry," he replied.  
"I'm all alone here now!" she sighed, crying on his shoulder.  
"I know how you feel," he said, "When my parents died, I felt all alone too... but then you came along and saved me. I hope someone comes along and saves you too." Most humans weren't that considerate of us Mobians like he was. He seemed to understand that we did have emotions that could be pleased or harmed, just like the humans did. Many of them didn't notice that under the fur, quills, and scales, us Mobians were quite like them. But Dart was different, he was a good boy.  
And he was also right in his prediction. A number of minutes passed after he said it and Trent, my son, joined Christine. "How are you doing, Christy?" he asked. No reply. He hugged her close to him. "C'mon Christine, I love you. I don't want to see you in pain like this. Let me help."  
She clung to him then like a person fallen out of a ship clings to a lifesaver. "I love you too, Trent!" she declared proudly despite her tears.  
He rocked her back and forth gently in his arms for several minutes. He was just what she needed, someone who not only cared but who wanted to share and ease her pain. "I won't leave you, Christine," he said.  
"He told me one thing before he left," she replied to him. "He told me that he trusted you with me completely... that he thought you would protect me to the end."  
"Christine," he said as he heard this. "Your father was right, I will... Christine? Will you do me the honor of one day becoming my lifemate?"  
"Yes."  
And so the two got engaged. I can't say that I had any objections to it, and neither did Crystal. Christine was a good girl, just like her mother. Rex, Rocky's son, was jealous for a while. No, he did not want Christine exactly, but his girlfriend was with Rambo's army up north. Speaking of them, we hadn't been able to connect yet. So Rex was lovesick and wasn't able to do much about it. But Trent and Christine... there was a match that would work.  
#####  
Shadow said that we only had a couple days to get out of the depot, and we didn't listen. Why should we have? How were we supposed to know what he was gonna do?  
He came flying above the base on that gloomy day. He was making such a fuss, calling us "obstinate fools" and "doomed people" and such nonsense. I just figured he was being a nuisance and such, and I don't see why I didn't have the anti-aircraft guns open fire on him. It sure would have saved us a lot of trouble.  
Well, then he began chanting some weird stuff... I didn't like the sound of it. Neither did any of the men. "I've had enough!" Rocky yelled. "Bring him down!" A minute after he gave that order to his troops, bullets were flying up in the air, trying to bring the hedgehog out of his flight. It was pointless really, nobody seemed to hit him. He was too small a target flying too fast and erratically.  
The storm clouds that had formed a few days earlier suddenly turned darker, and then to everyone's surprise they turned a strange shade of orange. "What's that idiot doing?" Rocky asked after calling his defensive a-a attack off.  
"How should I know?" I replied. I didn't know, nobody really did. "I don't like it though. Order your men to get ready to move out..."  
I had just given that order when a bolt of lightning struck the building next to ours. We jumped with surprise and ran outside to see exactly what had happened, and when we did, we really had a reason to be afraid. That lightning bolt sparked something in the clouds overhead and they caught aflame. Yes, you heard me right, the sky itself was on fire! It sounds interesting and nice looking, but when you're right under it you think differently.  
"Holy crap!" Andre yelled at the top of his lungs. "We need to get out of here!"  
"What is happening?" I asked.  
Shadow, being the annoying little fly that he was, gave the answer overhead. "Prepare for the almighty rain of a thousand flames!"  
"I don't like the sound of that," Crystal said, clutching to Nack, "Let's get out of here!"  
That was the statement on everybody's minds right then. Flaming clouds were not good. Rocky, Crystal, Andre, and I jumped in a jeep right outside the warehouse containing the rail gun, and then all hell broke lose.  
There was a sudden burst of dry heat felt against all of our backs. We turned and saw that a ball of fire had fallen from the sky and smashed into a building. It took a matter of seconds for the entire building to be entirely consumed by those flames. More of those fireballs were falling all around, and it appeared that the raindrops on the other side of the depot weren't water, but fire. Imagine, if you can, that scene. Imagine a rainy day, and then replace every raindrop falling from the sky with a flame like a lit match makes. I can't tell what I feared more at that time, the fireballs or the rain.  
"Punch it!" Rocky yelled at me, and I agreed that it was a very good idea.  
"The rail gun!" Andre cried out in dismay. I turned my head to look and indeed, the building was on fire.  
"I hope we can come back and get it!" I yelled, but those hopes were quickly extinguished when the rail gun's ammo cache exploded. The massive bullets flew wildly when they went off, unaimed. One truck right in front of us, containing a number of my snipers, was sliced in half by one of the rail gun shots. I cursed as I swirved to avoid hitting the twisted metal flying through the air from that one-in-a-million shot.  
Needless to say, we lost the depot. The Rain of a Thousand Flames was something horrible alright. It killed many. The rail gun was lost. We were scared to death of the power that Akron and his minions had. You would too if you saw destruction like that. Luckily, none of our family lost any members that day.  
#####  
Things are hard when your main plan in war goes up in smoke like that... no pun intended. Our high-command back in Europe fought through hell trying to salvage the situation, and they pretty much expected us to do the same as their backup plan. Let me ask you this; would you like to fight through a force so powerful as that after seeing them call down something like the Rain of a Thousand Flames? No sirree, that wasn't the best thing that I could think of. Everyone wanted to run back to Europe, but we were denied that.  
Well guess what... we got to run back into the fire! That's right, we complied with our generals back in Europe, but not because they said so. Apparently they had sent Rambo, Thorn, and Nova reinforcements, and if we could connect with their group we would have a force big enough to force our way west.  
Easy enough, right? Just meet up with them by heading north a bit? Wrong. Somehow the enemy caught word of that and started hammering us south. Nothing like trying to fight your way through a wall when the wall fights back.  
Durn that Raccoon! Rocky too! Rocky didn't know how to get through Akron's forces. He knew as much about tactical warfare as I know about ballet dancing, and believe me, that's not a whole lot. Nick knew. He had some odd way of keeping his men stronger in battle... he could strengthen their wills. I remember seeing one of those fighters get shot three times in his left leg and go on to bring four of Lucretia's troops down before even hinting to the medics that he wanted help. Rocky? All he did was tell them to get there guns and go shoot something over in the distance. Sure, that would have worked, if they didn't feel just like pawns.  
And speaking of that, durn the generals! What kind of general sits in another continent other than the one where the war is? Durn them all. Not only did they send us out to do what seemed like hopeless battles, but I couldn't even get any time with my wife. Couldn't get any time with my son either. I hated that. If they wanted to win the war so bad, why didn't they come over here and do some of the actual grunt-work?  
Durn Akron and Lucretia. Those two were the source of all this trouble. Was I really related to them? How ironic. Why did they have to come out and bother the entire world with their weird voodoo stuff when they could have had all the fun they ever wanted with it in their own back yard or something?  
And you know what? I hated it all. I hated that war. Isn't that funny? I hated it, but I was also one of the commanding officers. What was up with that? I don't know.  
You know what's funnier? Nobody cared! Nick didn't care what I thought because he was dead, and Rocky didn't care because a part of him still thought of me as his "little cousin." Akron and Lucretia didn't care what I thought, they were still gonna keep fighting with my troops. And the generals didn't care because I still kept on running around being their little pawn. In short, the entire world was saying "Durn Nack."  
#####  
Months of the same old garbage passed. Push 50 miles north, hold it for a few weeks, then get pushed back 48 of those miles. Get reinforcements and repeat the above steps. At that rate, I think that we'd reach Rambo, Thorn, and Nova around the time that my grandkids were officers in this army. Thank the High One that I wasn't the only one that noticed that; so did the generals.  
A brilliant plan they gave us. We were gonna do what I was best at; covert operations! It was a big mission: chose two of the best from our ranks and send them straight into the enemy's command post, where they would steal the access codes to San Francisco's computer networks. If we could disable that, the war would be like swimming from one side of a pool to the other. Everybody was happy to try that plan.  
But there was a problem. Everybody sucked at spy work. Everyone but me. So guess what? Rocky and I were the ones who were going on that mission...  
It started easy enough, to tell the truth. Approaching the complex was pretty easy. And then one day Rocky and I got separated when some of Akron's defenses opened fire on us. Wonderful. I got away and could only pray that Rocky did too.  
The thing that made it tough was that we had to go on foot. That meant a whole lot of walking. Miles and miles every day, and I had to look out for any of Akron's troops who wanted to play peek-a-boo with me. I had some close calls. One time I had to scurry up a tree to avoid the eyes of two patrols. They decided to take a break right under the tree to smoke a couple of cigarettes and chat. Those are the moments when your heart beats loud enough for the entire world to hear. I hate that feeling, but it wasn't something new in my profession. At least I did some spying on the two then too. Seems that I wasn't the only one who hated the war.  
A couple days passed and I was beginning to regret giving our food to Rocky. At least I had the water; that kept me going. It also wasn't a lot to carry around... Water and that necklace. The Dragonflame it was called. Honestly I don't know why I had been keeping it around my neck all these years, but something kept me from taking it off. It seemed to share my mind. Usually it glowed bright enough to be seen, but when I was hiding from someone it went dim, hiding itself. Funny little thing; just a cube of glass with some weird little flame on the inside. It probably would have been the greatest fashion statement back in Europe.  
The night came when I was right on the outskirts of the enemy command post. The area was a dense forest, complete with bushes, fallen logs, and many other nice places to hide if need be. The ground was uneven, so I was moving at a below-average speed. I thought I was all alone in that place, and then- Bam! Something scared me half to death! A green and white blur flew right under my nose.  
I turned, ready to strangle whatever it was that jumped out of nowhere like that, and I found Nova the Weasel! "What on Mobius are you doing here?" I whispered as I ran along beside her.  
She smiled and slowed to a walking pace. We were heading away from the command post now. "I was just completing the mission the generals gave me," she said.  
"Mission?" I asked. They had given her a mission in the same area?  
She held up a small CD. "They asked for us to retrieve the access codes for San Francisco's computer networks."  
My jaw dropped as she said that. So the generals had sent both sides of the force on the same mission? I couldn't tell if they were a bunch of fools for doing that or a bunch of geniuses! But it had worked. "They sent me out with Rambo," she continued, "He was captured." I winced at her gloomy report. Who knows what they would do to him. "I tried to find him and set him free before completing the mission, but I couldn't... but look! I did it! I got the access codes!"  
I stopped waking and shook her hand. "Congratulations!" I laughed, perhaps louder than I should have. "You are a great bounty hunter and spy! Maybe better than me!"  
She laughed back. "You really think so?"  
"Look at what y' did!" I replied. "You single-handedly captured what may change the course of this war! I'm sure you'll get a medal for this!"  
"Thank you, Fang!" she replied and hugged me, and I could only return the hug. Don't get any weird ideas; I was married. But you would have hugged her too if you were in my spot.  
And then the durndest of things happened. As she backed away from the hug, her smile turned into a look of shock. "Nack, look out!" She screamed, tackling me. Before I could curse her for being such an idiot, I heard a burst of gunfire come from the surrounding trees; 3 bullets. I had been unaware of the laser-sighting sticking to my forehead.  
We tumbled down into a small ditch next to where we had hugged. "That was close!" I hissed while I brought out my pistol, ready to defend myself against another attack. I sideward glance, however, told me that Nova hadn't been so lucky. She was wincing in pain. Two of the three shots had hit her in the side.  
"Get out of here," she growled at me, drawing her own revolver.  
"Are you nuts?" I protested. "There's no way that you're able to fight!"  
She glared at me right then. "And I suppose you think you'll be able to drag me all the way back to camp with these wounds?"  
I was about to argue with her more, about to answer her question with a "Yes," but I couldn't. One more shot rang out, a sharp pistol shot. Nova's face turned to one of surprised terror, then went to sleep. Her body went limp, her body slumping into my arms. A small hole with burning edges was what I saw on the top of her hat.  
It wasn't fair! She must have worked her tail off to complete that mission, and she had done it, and now she was dead! Those stupid cowards... they would only attack when our guards were down. And it was so ridiculous that I didn't even believe that it had really happened at first, and before I did, I felt the barrel of a gun against the back of my head. "Get up," A strangely familiar Russian voice said. I wasn't immortal any more, and I didn't feel like dying, so I did so. When I did, I saw why the voice was familiar. In front of me was Nova's murderer. Remember those twin foxes who had taken Calia, Crystal, and me hostage in South San Francisco a few years before the war started? Guess who Akron had chosen to bring back to life.  
The two lead me through the forest a few hundred yards when a third figure joined them. "Very good work, you two!" Akron said to them as he approached me. "Nack the Weasel... It's been a long time since we've seen each other, hasn't it?" I didn't respond. "Of course! Remember? That was the night you so graciously gave me the Emerald Sword. Don't tell me that you've forgotten already..."  
"I see you haven't lost any of your good manners," I replied.  
"No, I wouldn't," he said, walking alongside me. "Neither had your Raccoon friend. He was a very good looser." That jerk. He was so full of himself! I couldn't believe that I was now so close to him and unable to beat him to death. "Another of your friends was a different matter," he continued as the command post came into view, but then he stopped. "He wasn't very hospitable, kept arguing and fighting while we were torturing him. I believe that because he resisted so much that he died." As he said this, my eyes looked up at the treetops. Hanging from one of the branches with a rope around his leg was the lifeless body of Rambo. Seems that Nova would have been too late anyways.  
Akron turned and smiled to me again. "Shall we continue to my base? I have much to show you, and your friend Rocky can attest to that."  
  
To be continued!  
  
Next chapter...  
  
Power of the Dragonflame 


End file.
